Tenancy

Housing Benefit - Change in Circumstances

Help us keep your Reduction/Benefit right by telling us about changes in your circumstances

Why you must report any changes in your circumstances?

In order to avoid overpayments and potentially court proceedings it is important that you Tell Us of any changes in your circumstances. By telling us you will help us keep your Housing Benefit/Council Tax Reduction right.

What changes you must report

You need to Tell Us if:-you or your partner:

stop or start getting State Benefits

start work or change jobs

have an increase or decrease in wages

have savings or investments where the value goes up or down

go into hospital

You also need to Tell Us if:-

any of your children leave school

you change address

the number of people living with you changes, for example:

you have a child

other people come to live with you

you foster a child or children

other people leave your house.

When to tell us about a change in your circumstances

You must inform us of a change in circumstances straight away. If you delay notifying us of this change, you may miss out on receiving additional Housing Benefit/Council Tax Reduction.

If the change would give you LESS Housing Benefit which will result in an overpayment of Benefit, we may recover this from your ongoing Benefit. For Council Tax Reduction, this will be recovered via an adjustment to your Council Tax bill.

How to report your change in circumstances

To report any changes, or for advice on the types of changes, you should contact us in one of the following ways:

Download our Tell Us [196kb] form, you will need to complete it and return it to us by post.

Drop in to see us at the local centres, Monday to Friday 9.00 to 4.30. No appointment necessary.

Please remember that informing the Department for Work and Pensions or other offices such as Welfare Rights, Social Work Department or your Landlord of your changes in circumstances does not mean that we will always automatically be told. You must Tell Us.

There are documents on this page available in Portable Document Format (PDF) and you can view these with Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Reader can be downloaded for free from the Adobe web site.

Rent

How To Pay Rent

Rent payable to the association is due monthly in arrears, i.e. payment is due at the end of the month for the month that has passed. Rent is due on or before the 28th of each month and can be paid:

·At any Post Office using the rent card provided. You can also use your rent card to pay your rent at any shop with displays a “PayPoint” sign. There is no fee for using this service.

·By Direct Debit. Forms are available at the link below, or contact the office and we’ll send you one. You can choose to pay weekly, fortnightly, four weekly or monthly.

·By debit card. Call us, or pop into the office, with your debit card details and we will take a payment from you.

·By standing order from a bank account. Forms are available at the link below or alternatively contact the office. You can pay weekly, fortnightly, four weekly or monthly.

·By housing benefit which is usually sent direct to the association. If housing benefit pays part of your rent, you should pay the remainder using one of the other methods described above.

·Online – please ensure you have your tenant reference number to hand before proceeding. You will need to register your details on the website before you use this method.

ONLINE PAYMENTS

To pay online go to web site https://www.allpayments.netand register with the long card number on your rent card. Once registered, you simply log in every time you want to make a payment with your debit card.

ALLPAY APP

You can also download the AllPay app, register and pay using your smart phone and debit card.

TELEPHONE PAYMENTS

To pay over the phone, call us on 0141 552 7928, where we can take your payment by debit card. Out with office hours you can also phone AllPay on 0844 557 8321. You will need your rent card number when calling AllPay.

Your Rent Account

Details of tenants’ rent accounts are held on the association’s computer system. Accounts are updated every day and up to date balances available at all times. Tenants can obtain a rent account statement at any time by contacting the office.

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit

We advise tenants to apply for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit when first signing their tenancy agreement. Forms are available from the office and staff are more than happy to help with completing the forms. Entitlement to these benefits is calculated by Financial Services. Their contact telephone number is 0141 287 5050. If you want to make a claim at any time, please contact us or Financial Services directly. If there is any change in your circumstances, ie if you start working, then you must notify Financial Services immediately

Tenancy Services

We are happy to provide any support, information and advice to enable you to deal with any issues you may experience as a result of renting your home from the association and living in the Royston area.

Our staff can also link tenants with particular needs into specialist support and advice if additional support is required to successfully manage at home or with tenancy matters.

The section of our website provides information on how to look after your home so that the area remains clean, safe and attractive. There is also a section on contents insurance and credit union.

If you need any information or advice on managing your home or tenancy then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Scotcash is a Glasgow based organisation that provides affordable credit to people throughout the city.

For more information please contact Scotcash on 0141 276 0525.

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Our Performance

Scottish Social Housing Charter

The Scottish Social Housing Charter was introduced in April 2013, and requires all Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in Scotland to demonstrate how they perform in delivering housing services and other activities against a number of outcomes.

The first report on Spire View’s performance towards achieving the outcomes required by the Charter was produced and issued to our tenants and residents in October 2014 as part of our newsletter. This can be found in the downloads section of this site. We will continue to publish our results in our newsletter each year.

You can also compare us with other RSLs on the Scottish Housing Regulator website. The website is very user friendly and contains lots of information about Spire View Housing Association and other social landlords.